Abandonware vehicle simulation games

This one’s a flight sim for people who think Top Gun didn’t have enough fuel gauges. 1942: The Pacific Air War puts you in the cockpit of World War II fighter planes, complete with dials, switches, and enough acronyms to confuse a NASA engineer. The dogfights are intense, the strategy is deep, and landing your plane without crashing fee...

Released in 1987, this is less of a simulator and more of a fever dream where you pilot a flying box over a grid pretending to be terrain. 3-D Helicopter Simulator was ambitious for its time, with wireframe graphics that suggest a helicopter-shaped object doing helicopter-shaped things. You’ll take off, hover awkwardly, and then promptly cras...

Dive, dive! This 1989 DOS simulator puts you in control of a nuclear submarine, though most of the action involves pushing buttons and waiting very patiently. Think of it as the “Microsoft Excel of naval warfare,” only with more torpedoes. The tension builds as you track enemy ships, sneak through sonar nets, and try not to surface into...

Explosions? Check. Missiles? Check. Graphics that look like someone spilled gray soup on your monitor? Double check. A-10 Tank Killer lets you pilot a flying war machine and rain chaos upon tiny pixel tanks that may or may not be enemy vehicles. Missions include dramatic objectives like "blow stuff up" and "don't crash," which is harder than it sou...

Released in 1993 for DOS, A320 Airbus is less “Top Gun” and more “Intro to Aeronautical Bureaucracy.” It’s a flight simulator so realistic, even real pilots needed a manual. You’ll experience the thrill of pre-flight checklists, taxiing, and trying to not crash because you missed a single digit in your descent ra...

Get ready to drive a tank very slowly while also being very stressed. Abrams Battle Tank (1989, DOS) puts you in the commander’s seat of America’s steel behemoth, and somehow turns desert combat into a tactical crawl. It’s got strategy, explosions, and a lot of brown terrain. Not for the impatient, but if you’ve ever wanted ...

In ACE 2 (1987, DOS), you and a buddy can engage in split-screen dogfights so slow they make real air combat look like fast-forwarded ballet. The graphics are simple, but the charm is in the rivalry — few things bond friendships like chasing each other through the skies with barely responsive controls. Not quite “top ace” material...

Ace of Aces (1987, DOS) is a game where you pilot a WWII plane via a series of still-image panels that suggest action more than deliver it. It’s like a flipbook with ambitions. You’ll toggle views, dodge bullets (sort of), and feel like you’re in a dogfight told by someone who once read about planes. Surprisingly addictive, despit...

This 1986 DOS classic sounds way cooler than it is — ACE: Air Combat Emulator promises combat, but delivers what feels like flying a lawnmower through molasses. Still, for its time, it gave players the thrill of joystick jostling and the joy of watching enemy planes disappear into four jagged pixels. Think of it as the Wright brothers’ ...

Ever wanted to experience the grim, claustrophobic life of a WWII submarine captain without leaving your desk? Aces of the Deep (1994, DOS) delivers that dream in spades — torpedoes, sonar, periscopes, and lots of tense waiting. It’s haunting, quiet, and deeply strategic, like chess played underwater with depth charges. If you’re ...

Aces of the Pacific (1992, DOS) takes to the skies over WWII’s Pacific Theater, where you can dogfight in legendary aircraft and prove your piloting prowess — or spin into the sea with style. The graphics are dated, but the ambition was sky-high. You’ll battle Zeros, manage fuel, and wonder how pilots did any of this without save ...

Strap into your Spitfire, because Aces Over Europe (1993, DOS) is here to show you that flying over 1940s Europe was as dangerous as it was polygonal. As a follow-up to Aces of the Pacific, this one tightens the mechanics, adds grit, and lets you dive-bomb with dignity. It’s smart, serious, and filled with the kind of moments that make you ye...

Welcome aboard, Captain! Advanced Destroyer Simulator throws you into the high seas with all the firepower and radar beeps a '90s DOS machine can handle. Manage torpedoes, dodge depth charges, and try not to crash into an island while toggling between your periscope and a pixelated ocean map. It's part simulator, part action game, and all stress. Y...

Strap in and squint at the horizon—Advanced Tactical Fighter 2 wants you to dogfight like it’s the Cold War and your joystick is a weapon of mass confusion. Released in the golden era of chunky graphics and keyboard gymnastics, this is a flight sim that doesn’t hold your hand. It throws you in the cockpit, slaps you on the back, a...

If you’ve ever wanted to fly a jet fighter at Mach “Oh no, I crashed again,” After Burner is the game for you. This 1989 DOS classic straps you into an F-14 and launches you straight into the danger zone - no training wheels, no brakes, just pure pixelated chaos. The sky is your playground, and missiles are your confetti. It's fas...

Released in 1990, Air Strike USA is what you'd get if Top Gun had a baby with a Saturday morning cartoon. You pilot a heavily armed jet through side-scrolling skies, shooting down everything that moves and quite a few things that don’t. The plot? America. The gameplay? Explosions. It’s simple, silly, and occasionally seizure-inducing, b...

Ah yes, Air Trax from 1983 - a game where “flight” is more of a philosophical concept. It’s clunky, it's slow, and it looks like it was coded in someone’s garage (because it probably was). But there’s charm in this pixelated mess. You guide your plane through narrow gaps while wondering why gravity has such a personal ...

If your idea of high-octane excitement involves wind direction, tacking angles, and sail trim, then American Challenge: A Sailing Simulation is your digital paradise. This 1986 DOS classic lets you live out the thrilling world of competitive sailing... very slowly. It's you, your boat, and an ocean of pixelated blue waiting to be conquered with you...

Step into the cockpit of the Apache Longbow, a 1995 combat flight simulator where you’ll experience the thrilling sensation of trying to figure out keyboard controls before getting shot down by invisible enemies. It's a serious military sim for serious joystick enthusiasts, or anyone who’s ever yelled, “I am the sky god!” be...

Ah, Apache Strike (1989), the game where you're the lone helicopter pilot flying through blocky cities that look like they were made of leftover Lego bricks. Your mission? Blow up bad guys in a first-person view that resembles a screensaver from a lost civilization. The voice acting is so bad it’s good, and the cheesy radar interface is peak ...

Apollo 18: Mission to the Moon (1987) lets you relive the lunar missions in all their... spreadsheet-like glory. This game is as educational as it is punishing; you’ll learn about thrust vectors, fuel efficiency, and your tolerance for failure. Spoiler alert: one wrong number and you’re plummeting into the Moon like a space-themed bowli...

Dive into Aquanox (2001), where post-apocalyptic submarines battle it out beneath the ocean in a world that’s half Waterworld, half neon rave. With moody lighting and dialogue that screams “we’re trying to be deep,” it’s a game that takes itself very seriously while you zip around in your bubble-shooting doomfish. It's...

In Archimedean Dynasty, humanity did the logical thing after wrecking the surface world: moved underwater and started shooting each other in submarines. It's part tactical sim, part gritty sci-fi novella, and entirely German in its dedication to menus and moodiness. Imagine playing Wing Commander, but everyone is wet, brooding, and inexplicably ang...

Tank controls + polar bears + Cold War vibes = Arctic Fox. In this early vehicular combat sim, you're piloting a futuristic snow tank across an icy wasteland to stop some aliens or Russians or alien Russians. The plot is thin, the enemies sparse, and your tank controls like a drunk walrus on skis. But in 1987, this was high-tech stuff. There’...

Armored Fist is all about tanks. Big, heavy, no-nonsense tanks. It's essentially a driving sim for people who think speed is overrated and armor is fashion. Missions involve slow, deliberate destruction, long-distance sniping, and surviving Soviet counterattacks in glorious VGA. The physics are more optimistic than realistic, and the enemy AI often...

Armour-Geddon is what you get when someone combines Wargames with a midlife crisis. Set in a post-nuke world where you pilot tanks, helicopters, and laser cannons to stop a doomsday device, it’s a strange cocktail of strategy and first-person action. The 3D graphics were impressive for the time and confusing now. It's like trying to solve a R...

ATAC (1992) is what you get when someone says, “What if we made SimCity, but for waging the War on Drugs?” You play as the head of an anti-narcotics task force, deploying units, tracking smugglers, and launching airstrikes like it's your daily to-do list. The tone is serious, the mechanics are complex, and the politics… let&rsquo...

Ever wanted to be responsible for ending the world in fewer than ten keypresses? B-1 Nuclear Bomber (1981) gives you that chance, wrapping global annihilation in glorious monochrome and a user interface that feels like it was designed during a lunch break. You're the pilot of a strategic bomber, flying missions that are less Top Gun and more Cold W...

B-17 Flying Fortress (1992) is the kind of game where you don't just fly the plane—you are the plane. One moment you're the pilot, the next you're the nose gunner swatting Luftwaffe pests like you're at the world’s angriest carnival. There are ten crew positions to manage, and every one of them can go wrong in some exciting, explosive w...

Step aside, arcade action—B-24 Combat Simulator (1987) is here to test your patience, eyesight, and possibly your sanity. It’s all about realism, baby. You’ll take off, navigate, bomb targets, and hopefully land, all while squinting at an interface that looks like your uncle’s ham radio setup. The game is so committed to sim...